The Richest Kids in America

Among those businesses you may want to consider charity work in are hospitals, some long term care facilities, grocery stores, charity groups, and many other establishments as well. This can also allow people to gain new relationships and earn a good reputation for when they are ready to go out into the working world in the future.

Volunteers are a great help to businesses. For instance, those who work as volunteers in hospitals help patients to have a more tolerable stay while they are ill. Nursing home patients may enjoy having a volunteer come visit them from time to time just to keep them company. Volunteers in grocery stores can be helpful by carrying bags out for customers or helping them locate certain items in the store.

Volunteering your time to help charity groups can also be an enjoyable thing to do. Knowing you are helping those in need can be a rewarding experience that you can be proud of. Many elderly people who are shut-ins need volunteers to run occasional errands for them. Having trustworthy people who can go pay their bills or make trips to the store for them when needed can be a tremendous help.

Another benefit of being a volunteer is how you are perceived by the public eye. Most likely if you do well at job volunteering, you will be considered strongly should you ever want a permanent job at that particular business. When business managers see they can depend on you as a volunteer your reputation as a good worker will be set in stone. It is also a nice addition to have volunteer work listed on a resume as experience working with others in your community.

Volunteer opportunities are also a great way for college students to gain on the job training. You can check here – http://www.vinspired.com/opportunities for more information. Once you have an idea of which career you want to go into, find out if there is a business in that field that has a need for volunteers. This can help you be better prepared for the job and give you a sense of pride while doing it.

About The Author

Steve Volman – writer, thinker and general muser. Interests include charity and volunteering, football and the odd spot of golf. Any feedback on my articles in more than welcome.

I asked Frances to tell me more about her book-publishing journey.

“The idea for the story came when I was 10 years old. A Christian newspaper was running a writing competition for the best 500-word short story. I already loved writing and had soon written and submitted my entry. You can imagine my happiness when I got a letter back saying I had won!

At the time, I hadn’t thought about writing to make money, and I regarded it merely as a fun and interesting hobby, to be pursued in my free time when my parents were resting from homeschooling me and my three brothers and sisters.

Soon after winning the competition, my parents moved to France and I had to learn a new language and go to school for the first time. This took up a lot of my time and my writing slowed down to a near standstill.

But I had fallen in love with my characters,and I wanted to know how they would act, what they thought, who they really were. So I would snatch every spare moment my studies would give me to think of plot points and situations where I could get my characters to show who they were.

Slowly, bit by bit, I wrote a first draft, and asked my mother to act as editor. Out came the red pen. I watched in horror as my dear Mama struck through entire paragraphs and scenes until she had removed about a third of the text. When I got over the shock, I was eventually able to see that the scenes I had so carefully crafted were superfluous, but still, it hurt to see them go. When I look back on it, she was a pretty ruthless editor, and I wasn’t the easiest of authors to correct! But I think that any author, even an experienced one, needs someone to read their work and be honest with them.

I had by this time changed schools, and as I neared the end of High school, I had less time to work on the book. I was however determined to finish it by then and I got down to the hardest part of all: checking for continuity and typographical errors.

I was persuaded by my mother to postpone the finishing of the manuscript until after the first half of my Baccalaureate, and my headmistress didn’t want me to carry on either, for she wished me to concentrate on my exams which are taken very seriously in France. As I’m doing a classical Christian curriculum, that means studying Latin, Greek and Spanish up to 12th grade level, as well as all the other subjects such as Math, Science, History, Literature, etc., all of which I have to do in French.

After the first year was finished, Mama let me publish my book through Lulu.com. A friend did the cover for me, because I wanted a cover that would give a clue about the book and be professional enough to catch peoples’ eye. As it is the only graphic I could afford, it had to be a good one.

Two of the major surprises I found were how long it actually takes to get the manuscript to publishing level. There were so many details: point size, font, page breaks, formatting, and the size of the book. I had to change the size of the book in order to reduce the publishing costs as much as I could, because I wanted it to be as affordable as possible so that parents and grandparents would take the chance on a book by a new author.

The other great surprise was that there are many people who say: “Yeah, great, that’s fantastic, that’s cool…” but don’t put their hand in their pocket to buy a copy. I think that if I’d had the capital start-up to buy a stock of books to show people, it would have been easier. People see a screen, but getting them to click and buy a copy is a tricky barrier to get through. So many people today don’t want to touch Christian literature because it’s untrendy or because they think it’ll be boring, others will only buy books that have been heavily advertised.

This was my next problem: how to market it. This is proving the biggest hurdle because I’m marketing from a distance. I live in a French-speaking country and there are no home school conventions, Christian conferences, bookstores etc… where I can promote my work.

I also only get home once every two weeks, so time to learn about Internet marketing has also been in short supply…

However, I do have plans for two other products to put on my website: an audio book which I hope will be done for Christmas and a home school package on life in the Roman Empire at the time of the Early Church, that I hope to have up and running by next June and which will be linked in with the book.

Of course, I’ve got to learn to write the website to do this. It was one thing to put up a blog, but designing a website is going to be tougher. I think my Mum is a good editor, but she knows nothing about computers!

I’m certainly planning to write other books for young readers: I’ve got two ideas, one based during the Italian civil wars and one based on my Great Grandfather’s wartime journal.

I don’t know if the first story idea is the hardest, but I would say that the first book definitely is, because there are so many technical things that one has to learn about: production, editing, formatting, etc… If I was asked to give advice to an aspiring author, I would say: choose a subject in which you’re really interested. If I hadn’t really wanted to know what was going to happen to my characters, there wouldn’t have been a story. The other thing I would say, is don’t tell a lot of people know you’re writing a book. I say this because many people, even if they don’t mean to be negative, put stumbling blocks in the way. They’ll say, for example: you’re too young, you’ll be embarrassed to look back at it later (which may be true, but at least I’ll have had the experience of pushing the project through to completion. On that basis, there’s no point in anyone under 30 even getting out of bed in the morning!)

Also, it was hard to deal with people who promised to buy copies and to pass on the news and then didn’t honor their word. That was tough.

I also think that young writers should be cautious about how they present their work: if they’re not careful, they’re labeled as “school-girl writers”and that is lethal to anything, no matter how good. Many people haven’t wanted to give my book a chance because it was written by a teenager.

Another word of advice: make sure that you publish through a house that doesn’t ask for money upfront. And make sure you keep back-up copies of absolutely everything you do! I kept back-up copies of every single version and edition of my manuscript until it was in print.

Also, storyboard the whole thing and plot it out first. I think I’d have cut my writing time down by half if I had done that. But then the mysterious Greek Inn-keeper whose old comrade had been at the Crucifixion was born because of the way the characters moved. I couldn’t have foreseen it and I think it’s one of the strongest chapters in the book. Let me know what you think!

If I was doing it over again, I would definitely say: try to have your own laptop. My family works from an IBM Thinkpad which is practically an antique and it is shared between everyone in the family. My novel writing time has sometimes taken second place to my baby brother looking at Thomas the Tank Engine on-line!”

The first thing you need to do to get started with your lens is open up an account.  You can do that at http://www.squidoo.com.  This account is completely free, and you’ll love it because you can start new lenses and organize the ones you have already made.  Squidoo has a lot of nice features that tell you how many people have visited your lens, how much money you have made off of them, and which ones could use a lot of work.

You’ll notice that many people talk about having multiple “lenses” rather than just one “lens.”  The reason for that is simple!  It’s so easy and fun to set these up that you’ll want to create them about many different topics you’re interested in.  The sky is the limit when it comes to lens creation.

When you sign into your account you’ll find a “create a lens” button.  This button will take you through a series of steps to get your lens set up.  There are some options that get you started super fast by doing things for you, and there are others that give you more choices to get your lens looking just the way you want it.

These aren’t boring little Web Pages either.  Squidoo lenses are made up of what are called modules.  You choose the exact ones you want on your page and organize them just the way you like.

Some popular modules are:

q Text – you can write anything you want that is related to your lens
q Amazon – you can make money right from your lens by recommending information that is relevant
q Wikipedia – Sometimes you don’t want to have to write everything yourself.  You can enter in a word that describes your topic and Squidoo will find a Wikipedia article that fits for you to put on your page
q RSS – Do you have a blog or know of one you like?  You can enter in the blog’s RSS feed and it will pull content right from that blog to show your visitors
q Stickynote – Stickynotes are a lot of fun to use in real life, and they can really stand out on a website too.  You can call attention to any quick fact you want by using a sticky note
q Duel – If your lens is part of a debate you can set up a duel model.  This can get your visitors interested in interacting and debating with each other
q Guestbook – Having a guestbook on your lens is a lot of fun because your visitors can leave you message or have a discussion about your topic

There are literally dozens of different modules that you can use.  These will all help you add content, get your guests involved, or help make you money.

There are a few different ways you can make money through your Squidoo lens.  As you can see, there are a few modules that are already designed to fit with the topic of your lens and help you make money.  You will need to sign up as an affiliate with the company related to the module, then put in your special username or code to make sure the sales get credited to you.

If you have another website and you’re using your lens to try and get more visitors to your site that’s a great idea!  If you go a step further and write your own eBook or become an affiliate of a product you can even put your sales link right on your Squidoo lens.

The best way to get started with Squidoo is to go grab yourself an account to play around with. You’ll fall in love with its flexibility and features.  These little sites also rank very well with the search engines so you’re sure to get some visitors and maybe even make some money if you put hard work into it.

Why not combine something you love doing and would do anyway with a way to make a profit? People love to buy handmade things and are willing to pay a premium to do so. Adults are especially impressed with kids that are creative and working to earn money.

The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of craft you want to sell. If you’ve been crafting for a while then the chances are good that you’ve already picked out the kind of crafts you want to make. If you have never made a craft or just aren’t sure what will sell, here are some common examples:

* Jewelry
* Soaps
* Candles
* Dolls and doll clothing
* Decorations
* Holiday items
* Knitted or crocheted items
* Wedding or party favors
* Cards
* Journals or scrapbooks

It is not hard to get started selling making these things. You can learn how to start a craft by researching theorganic soap one that you are interested in. There are many resources available on the Internet complete with diagrams and pictures to help you. If you’d rather have a resource that you can look at and hold in your hand, your local craft store probably has some options. Our local “Joann’s” craft store even holds classes on a regular basis. Don’t forget your local library, too.

It’s very important that you do several test runs before you put any of your crafts out on the market. You need to make sure that you understand how to make the craft well and that it’s up to the quality that people appreciate when they pay good money.

After you’re sure you’ve got the knack for making your chosen craft down, you need to figure out how much to charge people. First of all, you definitely need to charge more than you are paying to get the materials. You also need to factor in the time it takes you to make the item. It’s a good idea to see how much other people are selling similar items for so you know what the market is like.

A great place to look at other people’s prices and get inspired yourself is http://www.etsy.com. Etsy is a marketplace where people post their homemade goods for sale on the Internet. You can even set up your own little Etsy shop selling your goods online.

If you’d like, you can also create your own website to sell your handmade goods. Look at your different options to see what you like better and what makes the most sense for you to do.

While you can sell a lot of crafts online, you don’t want to forget about selling them locally as well. Many towns have craft bazaars where you can take your crafts to sell in your own booth. These can be a lot of fun! Of course, don’t forget your friends and family.

Making and selling crafts is very fulfilling because you can make money doing something you really love to do. Do your research to see how much you should sell your crafts for and where, and you’ll be ready to go in no time.

It’s very true, and teens all over the nation are making good money as writers. The best part is that this is one job you can do in the comfort of your own home. No more slinging hamburgers on a hot day if you don’t want to.

Now, you might find paid writing internships at local newspapers, and that is a great step if you want to become a report one day. The best opportunities, however, come with writing web content for businesses.

Have you ever visited a website and wondered who did all that writing? Sometimes the webmasters or owners do the writing themselves if they have time. Other times they will hire a freelance writer to do it for them. This can also be called ghostwriting.

Do you know any local businesses who have a website? It’s a great idea for you to offer to write some content for their site. Explain that it will help them get more visitors, rank higher in the search engines, and make more sales.

Another way to get started is to set up a website offering your services. You can even set up a free Squidoo lens if you’re not comfortable creating a website yet. You want to include samples of your writing (that your English teacher would approve of) to show off your awesome writing skills.

You need to think about how much you are going to charge businesses and website owners for your writing. Writers for the web tend to start out a little bit lower than normal to get their foot in the door. This will help you get more clients that land you great referrals in the future. $5-$10 is a good starting range per article.

Imagine that! You can make money from the same kind of writing you would normally do for free to get a grade. Often, you can make a lot more than you would working retail or at another job that teenagers typically take.

A great way to get started earning right away is to sign up for Associated Content.

Associated Content is a company that has you submit your articles before payment. They will review your articles and then let you know how much they are worth. You can accept the payment and they will pay right into a PayPal account (free at http://www.paypal.com )

One problem you might run into as a teen who wants to write for profit is not being old enough or being looked down on because of your age. You can prove yourself by writing great content and presenting yourself in a professional manner. If you are simply too young to be accepted you can encourage your parents to help you get started. They can be the ones with the writing business, while you help them out by writing some content (and getting paid in the process).

Writing for profit is the best option for you if you’re a teen who loves to write. There are few jobs out there that can be so fun. You can do this on your own time and feel like you’re really accomplishing something great.

The 12-year-old girl walked up to the bank manager and said she needed a business checking account because she was starting her own business.

The junior at RHAM-Hebron is a standout volleyball player who has been running her own business throughout her teenage years. Smolinski — with the help of her sister Laura, 14, and her parents — operates pre-wrap.com, which sells athletic wrap that is used by female athletes as a hair wrap.

When Tessa, 16, began her business, she says she was hoping to make about $20 a week. Instead, she has saved enough to offset some of her college tuition — her mother says she has enough for about a year at, say, UConn — and the business is growing.

The business has shipped to customers all over the world. The biggest order was for 10,000 rolls in one shipment to a retail chain.

“It’s a lot about the way we market it,” Tessa said.

The wrap is a soft, thin material designed for athletic trainers as a buffer between skin and sticky athletic tape. Somewhere along the line, preteen and teenage female athletes began using it as a hair wrap.

Tessa came home from soccer practice wearing a headband four years ago, and she asked her mother to find rolls.

Teresa searched stores and malls and finally found rolls on eBay, purchasing more than her daughter needed.

The Smolinskis are entrepreneurs — father Dick runs his own photography studio in Glastonbury and Teresa is a freelancer who provides technical art for text books — so they suggested Tessa sell some of the extra rolls at her next soccer practice. Tessa sold them all and came home with $75 of orders.

The business was born.

“I was definitely surprised,” Tessa said. “It just took off.”

Laura was immediately involved in monitoring color demands. Teresa and Dick explained to Tessa the basics of running a business — where to buy inventory, how much to charge for the product, how much to put back into the business and how much could be saved.

“I just thought, if I had this much trouble finding it and the girls at soccer practice wanted it this bad, there was something there,” Teresa said. “And we thought it was something she could make a little spending money on. I was thinking to the tune of allowance money, and she could learn how to run a business.”

They immediately learned that the business would be bigger than they anticipated. Within 30 minutes of their website going live, there was an order for 48 rolls of red pre-wrap. That wiped out the inventory of red, so there was a lesson.

Soon they were scouring vendors for various colors — they now stock 12 colors. Profits rose and were reinvested into the business as the website went global.

There are orders for overnight deliveries to teams across the country. Last week, orders were shipped to New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Tessa’s volleyball season has started. She was All-Northwest Conference as RHAM won the CIAC Class M championship last year and hopes to play in college.

“With homework and sports, I do need help,” Tessa said. “So right now, I’ve hired my grandparents, my parents … our staff.”

The business earned Tessa a Future Leader Award from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. She plans to continue the business in college — she’s undecided on a college choice — while Laura runs the operation from home.

And Laura, who was in fourth grade when the business was born, has virtually grown up around rolls of pre-wrap. She recently ran a fundraiser through the pre-wrap website as a social studies community service project and sent care packages to soldiers in Iraq.

So beyond the profits from the business, the sisters have learned lessons through their entrepreneurial endeavor.

“I joke that I’m home schooling them in business,” Teresa said. “It was really important to me and to my husband that we teach the girls that you can do what you love to do.”

Tessa would seem a strong candidate for business school, but she’s considering a career as a speech therapist. But her business background will undoubtedly influence how she pursues that career.

“It would be nice having my own business in speech therapy,” Tessa said.

BY RICK HARTFORD / HARTFORD COURANT

Kids and Taxes

Most kids who start their own business do so because they want to make some extra money, maybe so they can buy a car or save for college or just for some extra spending money.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that the last thing kids are thinking about when they start a business is the taxes they will owe on any profits they earn.

However, as self employed people, taxes could be one of their biggest expenses.  Self employed people are subject not only to federal income taxes, but to self employment taxes as well.  As a result, this can be the biggest expense for a self employed person, and can be quite a shock if you’re not prepared for it.

What is self employment tax?  Basically, self employment tax represents Social Security and Medicare taxes for people who work for themselves. This tax is used to fund benefits you receive when you retire (old age and hospital insurance). It is also used to pay benefits if you become disabled, or to your family in the event of your premature death (disability and survivor insurance).

Self employment tax is similar to the payroll taxes withheld from the pay of most employees. The biggest difference is that as a business owner, you are required to pay both the employee and the employerís share of the Social Security and Medicare taxes.  So while employees of a company pay 7.65%, self employed people pay 15.3% in Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Even worse, this tax is on top of your regular income tax.  So if you are in the 10% tax bracket (we’ll assume no state income tax for this example), your taxes on your profit from your business could be over 25% (15.3% self employment tax plus 10% federal income tax).

When do you pay this tax?  The federal income tax system is a pay-as-you-go tax system. That means you pay taxes as you earn income throughout the year. If you are an employee of a company, you do this through withholding. If you are self employed, you do this through estimated tax payments.

The general rule is that you must make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for the current tax year, after subtracting your withholding and tax credits.  Estimated tax payments are due on April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15 of each year (or the next day if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday).  Failing to make estimated tax payments on time could result in a penalty even if you are due a refund when you file your tax return.

Even if you don’t have to make estimated tax payments, it’s a good idea to set aside 20-30% of your net profits (depending on what tax bracket you fall into) so that you will have enough to pay your taxes when it’s time to file your tax return.

Parents: want to learn how to minimize your family’s taxes?  If you have a small business, or if your child has their own business, you’ll want to learn how to hire your children (insert affiliate link) to help minimize your family’s tax burden.

Kristine A. McKinley, CPA, and CFPÆ, offers financial and tax planning on an hourly, fee-only basis. She specializes in helping home based and online business owners understand and minimize their income taxes so they can keep more of their profits.  Link to tax blog: www.internetbiztaxtips.com

If you have kids who are in business for themselves, then just like adults, they may need to make estimated tax payments.  Here’s a brief summary of who needs to make estimated tax payments and how to make them.

The federal income tax system is a pay-as-you-go tax system.  That means you pay taxes as you earn income throughout the year.  If you are an employee of a company, you do this through withholding.  If you are self employed, you do this through estimated tax payments.

The general rule is that you must make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for the current tax year, after subtracting your withholding and tax credits (such as the Earned Income Credit or Retirement Savings Credit).

Also if you havenít paid in at least…

*  90% of the tax due on your current year tax return, or
*  100% of the tax due on last yearís tax return

then you may need to make estimated tax payments.

Generally, you will estimate your tax liability for the entire year and divide that amount by four to determine your quarterly estimated tax payments.  The IRS has calculators on their website to help with this.

The due dates for estimated tax payments are:

April 15
June 15
September 15
January 15 the next year

If any of these fall on the weekend or a holiday, then your payment is due on the next business day.

Form 1040-ES is used to make estimated tax payments.

One note regarding estimated tax payments:  if the person who owes estimated tax payments has other income from an employer, they can increase the withholding from the other income source to avoid having to make estimated tax payments.  For example, if Tommy expects to owe taxes because of his lawn mowing business, but he has another job when he’s not mowing lawns, he can ask his employer to increase his taxes from his job so he doesn’t have to make estimated tax payments on the income he earns mowing lawns.

Parents: want to learn how to minimize your family’s taxes?  If you have a small business, or if your child has their own business, you’ll want to learn how to hire your children (insert affiliate link) to help minimize your family’s tax burden.

Kristine A. McKinley, CPA, and CFPÆ, offers financial and tax planning on an hourly, fee-only basis. She specializes in helping home based and online business owners understand and minimize their income taxes so they can keep more of their profits.  Link to tax blog: www.internetbiztaxtips.com

The IRS has different tax rules for kids, so how do you know if your child is required to file a tax return?

In general, kids who are dependents (claimed on someone else’s tax return) must file a tax return if:

- they have earned income of $5,700 or higher (this is the standard deduction amount for 2009, the amount for 2008 was $5,450)
- they have unearned income (investment income) of $950 in 2009 ($900 in 2008)
- they have gross income (both earned and unearned) in excess of the larger of $950 or their earned income plus $300.

The most common reason kids would need to file a tax return is because they had earned income from a part time job or because they are lucky enough to have investments in their own name, as described in the above rules.  However, the following children may also be required to file a tax return:

- those who have earned income and who received advanced earned income credit payments from his or her employer,
- kids who had wages of $108.28 or more from a church, that is exempt from employer Social Security and Medicare taxes, or
- kids who had net earnings from self employment or their own business of at least $400.

Example:  Sarah is 15 and is claimed as a dependent on her parents’ tax return.  In 2008, her only income was $250 she earned from making jewelry and selling it to her family and friends.  In 2008, she is not required to file a tax return.  However, let’s assume that word about her jewelry spread and in 2009 she doubled her income.  Assuming her net earnings (after expenses) from her jewelry business was $500, she would be required to file a 2009 income tax return.

Filing your child’s tax return:

If your child is required to file only because he or she had investment income, you may be able to report the child’s income on the parent’s tax return, which would eliminate the need to file two tax returns.

If the child is required to file because she has earned income from an employer, or if she has a business of her own, then she will need to file her own tax return.  In addition, children with their own businesses will need to complete Schedule C – Profit or Loss From Business and Schedule SE – Self Employment Tax and attach these to their income tax return.